Guest Columns

A young woman wrote this to me after my last column: ‘I’ve been thinking about this death penalty debate. I don’t know where I stand…’  It recalled for me a time when I too, did not know where to stand and how that changed. I easily remember traumatic episodes from …

“[…] We subscribe to a criminal justice system which is fair though not infallible. What the abolitionists must bear in mind is that if a man is really innocent, it is better that he be executed than be incarcerated for life; for that man—knowing he is innocent—would live a life …

The tragic circumstances surrounding Andrea Bharatt’s abduction and murder have shone a light on our society’s sensibilities toward a number of issues. And whilst our attitudes toward the value of women, the pursuit of justice, crime and punishment and scepticism of authority are by no means monolithic, the discourse surrounding …

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, in his trademark rhetoric, responded to concerns expressed by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Senator David Nakhid about the deaths of Andrew ‘Solo’ Morris and Joel Belcon while in police custody with personal attacks today, via a Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) release. Griffith …

The Trinidad and Tobago police service (TTPS) today issued a statement that they would be investigating the deaths of two suspects, Andrew Morris and Joel Belcon, while in police custody. The two men were held in connection with the kidnapping and death of 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt, whose body was found …

One group: burning tyres, pieces of wood, cardboard—debris really—in protest against the conditions of roads that are impassable or collapsing; or the absence of water via taps or trucks; or maybe it’s a bridge gone, cutting them off; or a fallen tree yet to be cleared; or a downed electricity …

‘Poor children are victims of circumstance/ In life they never really get a chance/Or have opportunities as privileged children do/ The road from the poor suburb to prison leads them/ From broken homes they are condemned to fail/ Their abusive and drug-addicted parents serving time in jail/ Their parents too …

February 21 will mark nine days after the burial of Andrea Bharatt, and it is likely that the marching, candlelight vigils and accusations of ‘shedding crocodile tears’ will no longer be at the forefront of our minds. We will retreat to the burglar-proofed boxes we call homes and cautiously peer …

Change is needed. Whether they are the right changes, fast changes or far enough changes, will always be a matter for debate.  However, what is certain is that the criminal justice system needs reform. And while it may be convenient to ascribe blame on one component of this integral system, …

On the date corresponding to today in last year’s Carnival calendar, I was tied up in Tobago with pan business, enjoying the morning after our attendance at the medium band 2020 Panorama finals which was held in Tobago. Now all of Tobago is tied up. There is the deadlock in …

‘When a country is in the grip of a collective passion, it becomes unanimous…the partisan spirit makes people blind, makes them deaf to justice. It dims perception of goodness, merely enables it to mistake this or that means for an absolute good. ‘One must, therefore, endeavour strenuously to protect one’s …

I had begun writing about something entirely different when I suddenly felt I didn’t want to anymore, not this week anyway. It was too utterly oppressive and my mood had been altered by two sightings. One was photographs of the murals that Jackie Hinkson put up yesterday on Fisher Avenue …